Shapel in Tsarskoe Selo, Gothic Revival pavilion in Alexander Park, Tsarskoe Selo, Russia.
Shapel is a Gothic Revival chapel in Alexander Park near Pushkin, Russia, made up of two square towers joined by a broad arch. Colored glass windows let light into the interior and produce changing effects on the stone surfaces throughout the day.
The chapel was built between 1825 and 1828 by architect Adam Menelaws as part of the imperial estate at Tsarskoe Selo. After suffering wartime damage, it stayed closed for decades and only reopened to visitors in 2018.
The chapel holds angel sculptures by Vasily Demuth-Malinovsky, placed inside the building and visible to visitors today. The colored glass casts shifting light onto the stone surfaces and gives the interior a different quality depending on the time of day.
The chapel sits within Alexander Park and is reached on foot by following the park's main paths. It is worth setting aside enough time to also take in the other buildings scattered around the park during the same visit.
The chapel originally contained a statue of Christ by German sculptor Johann Heinrich von Dannecker, which was later removed from the site. That sculpture is no longer there, but its absence is itself part of what the building's interior once was.
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